10 sure-winner blog post ideas

Question: What’s the best strategy when you have writer’s block and just can’t think of blog topics to write on or create a video about?

Answer: Read an article like 10 sure-winner blog post ideas. And this hopefully clever introduction brings us to our first idea:

Questions and Answers. The Q&A format, if you do it right, has two excellent things going for it: it’s easy to read and it encourages short responses. You can address commonly asked questions or dig down into your brain cells for important questions you believe should be asked and answered.

Interviews of employees, customers, and industry experts. Interviews have been the meat and potatoes of popular magazines since publishing began. Finding employees and customers should be easy. To snag industry experts, make connections at trade shows and similar events.

Go out on a limb – make predictions. If interviews are the meat and potatoes of print media, hire wire acts are what keep people coming back to the circus. Make some radical predictions about your industry or evolution of your products or services. Be bold!

Reviews and comparisons. Review the best books/blogs related to your product or service. You probably follow these more closely than your customers or clients, so take some time to clue them in.

Start with number one and keep going. Anytime you can squeeze a topic into a list, you’re doing your blog a big favor – just ask the editors of Cosmopolitan or People Magazine.

Legal matters. Okay, this may not always be compelling reading, but sometimes covering legal matters that your customers or clients may not know or understand is an important service to provide. Tip: Start with an example of how someone ran afoul of a law or regulation to pull in your readers – keep the writing personal – don’t let it read like the opinion of the 12th Circuit Court.

Team introductions. Developing pseudo-personal relationships with the people we do business with today is important. If you have a clog dancer, storage unit auction addict, or expert in Thai cooking on your team, let people know. Of course, also include the training and life/professional experiences that qualifies people for the positions they hold.

Hall of Fame, Hall of Shame. What are the best and worst things that have happened in your industry? Your company?

How you spent your summer vacation. This echoes the team introductions mentioned above. Every so often take time to briefly discuss things happening in your life. Let these roll over into your social media marketing as well. I’m always surprised and encouraged by the response I get when I share some of the little things in life that pop up in my journey.

Thought leaders you suggest people follow. Just as you should occasionally review books and other materials, do the same thing for thought leaders. Let your customers and clients know who they should be listening to and watching for. This will also help you establish relationships with important industry voices and even drive traffic to your website; include links to these professionals and let them know that you have mentioned them…and would appreciate a social media mention.

With a little minimal effort, you’ll be able to squeeze a lot of content out of these ideas. What approaches have given you the most “mileage” for content creation?